


Barriers

by auroraXborealis



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Angstshipping - Freeform, Comfort, First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:35:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28387899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/auroraXborealis/pseuds/auroraXborealis
Summary: Prince Marik of Arabia is being roped into a trip up north along his sister, Queen Ishizu. As very newly appointed liaison between his country and Icelandia, his job is to make sure the relation between both countries stay harmonious. But when he ends up bedridden because of an unfortunate illness, he is going to learn that, sometimes, relationships have to be developed with creativity.
Relationships: Bakura Ryou/Marik Ishtar
Comments: 6
Kudos: 13
Collections: KC Winter Cup 2020





	Barriers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [darkmagiattack](https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkmagiattack/gifts).



> So readers (and especially you Magi!), you know how I like to dabble outside of my comfort zone sometimes, and this is it: my first attempt at Angstshipping for a dear friend! I have tried to honour your own world building talent by creating this little fantasy AU and using as many of the prompts I was a given to please you!  
> I hope you'll enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! <3

Arabia was one of those countries that looked straight out of a fairy tale. The sandy dunes covered large areas, yes, but the carefully placed villages and towns bustled with life and joy. The markets were always busy and their stands filled with the exotics fruits and food the oasis surrounding them provided, as well as delicacies from the nearing countries around. The taverns offered the most exquisite brews and served the tenderest pieces of meat one could even have the pleasure of tasting. The farmers provided delicate goat milk that turned into rich cheese and yogurt that was then served with sun dried fruits and syrupy figs and dates.

“I’m going to miss dates.”

Lavender eyes traveled along the sandy view, heart clenched in his chest. All the richness of this land and he was being torn away from it against his will.

“And heat. Mostly heat.”

Sitting a top of a majestic camel, he trotted down the dunes with his traveling companion who sighed loudly next to him.

“Brother, would you cease your whining? We’re barely left and already, it feels insufferable,” Queen Ishizu said as he younger brother could only huff in response.

Marik loved everything about Arabia, from the food to the sultry music to the streets busting with action to the friends he had made amongst other nobles and servants who entertained his daily whims of exploring every inch of the city.

So when his sister, the queen of this very country, had announced they would be leaving for a few weeks to Icelandia, a country way up north on the large maps in the palace throne room, Marik had gaped. Sure, he had traveled with his sister before, being the crown prince, but he had never been asked to be officially part of such a longer diplomatic mission.

Ishizu often traveled alongside her wife Mai and left Marik to take care of things in Arabia while she was away. However, this time, she had requested her brother come along and had mandated Rishid, her vizier, to overview the affairs of her country while both of them would be gone.

Mai, also the captain of the royal guard, led the way amongst a few selected soldiers accompanying them in the journey as they trailed behind. Their royal purple outfits stood out from their beige surrounding, the gold undertones glistening in the midday sun.

Ishizu brought her camel close to her brother’s. “Be happy we do not have to travel by normal means of transportations since both Arabia and Icelandia are on good enough terms to have a Stellar Bridge built between them.”

And he was very grateful about that indeed. It would have taken weeks to travel all the way up north. Relations between the northern country and theirs were already strong and the High Priests of each country had devoted time and energy to create a Stellar Bridge, a magical portal that could only be opened with a sacred talisman offered to the royal family and passed down from generation to generation. Right now, it hung on his sister’s neck, a beautifully carved gem of the lightest blue he had ever seen. Queen Kisara’s grandmother had offered it to their own grandmother many moon ago. Now, as queen herself, it was Ishizu’s turn to wear it and protect it.

Marik was reminded of how lucky they were as royals, and how sometimes, these special things could be taken for granted. “I am very glad of that fact, sister. I just…”

Ishizu smiled softly at him. “I know, Marik. Whenever we have to do something diplomatic, you would rather run along the streets and jump over rooftops then assist to one measly curtesy meal.”

He looked back at her with pleading eyes. “Then why are you bringing me along on this trip? You’ve made it alone yourself before.”

She rolled her eyes at him, a playful smile of her lips. “Because you are now of age to attend those meetings, and it is your duty as crown prince of Arabia to accompany me.”

He sighed dramatically. “I’ll surely make a fool out of myself with my less than appropriate manners.”

She took a pause before winking at him. “I sure hope you don’t.” Her hands held unto the reins of her camel, but they went to her neck to loosen the cord of her ancestral pendant. She unwound it from there and looked at it tenderly. “I have every intention of you becoming Arabia’s ambassador with Icelandia. As queen, I do not have enough of one lifetime to maintain all these relations with our foreign allies.” She extended her hand with the dangling necklace hanging on it. “But you have.”

Marik blinked for a few seconds. “Me? An ambassador to another king or queen I have never met let alone set eyes upon?” he exclaimed. “You must be mad to think me fitted for such a role!”

She smiled knowingly at him and motioned again for him to take the pendant. “Queen Kisara is a lovely woman, and you have met here once, although at a very young age. You have also met her brother, Prince Ryou.”

Marik’s fingers curled around the precious stone as he held it, relieving his sister of it. “I have?”

Ishizu chuckled lightly. “Yes, I remember having to pull you both away from each other at one point. You kept pulling at his hair and he at yours. It was quite adorable if you ask me.”

Marik raised an eyebrow at her. “Let me get this straight: this other prince and me, we hate each other?”

The queen cocked her head to the side, a pensive finger taping her lip. “I would not call it hate per say, you were both so young. But annoy each other, that, I can agree on.”

Marik huffed again, tying the talisman around his neck, making sure it was secured enough. “This is going to be a nightmare,” he moaned.

Ishizu poked his cheeks childishly before pulling her camel into a slightly faster pace. “Well, be happy you can do something about nightmares, Dream Walker,” he heard her say as she joined her wife at the front of their small troop.

“Ishizu! That is not what I mean!” he yelled back at her.

***

Marik had been right about one thing.

He missed the heat.

Very much so.

Especially as he coughed his throat out for the past day or so.

Their trip along the Stellar Bridge had been pleasant, but as soon as the portal had opened up on the frozen land of Icelandia, the chill had shook him to his bones even though Ishizu had warned him it could come as a bit of a shock. He had thoroughly prepared and bundled up into multiple layers, but he did not possess his sister’s pyrokinetic powers that also enabled her to keep her body temperature just the right degree of perfection.

While they were threading towards Queen Kisara’s palace, he had slipped and fallen into icy water and drenched all his thick layers of warmth. They had gotten him into a warm bath as soon as they had made it on the steps of the palace and had then proceeded to cover him with the softest and warmest furs in the land that had lulled him into a restless sleep.

He had awoken a few hours later with Ishizu by his side and a fever that she had tried to calm down with a fresh watered cloth on his forehead, but it had only help so much. She had told him the court’s medic had ordered him on bedrest until his fever had gone down enough for him to eat a few simple things.

So much for becoming a diplomatic envoy.

She had let him rest while she attended the evening meal without him. At that moment, he felt very much alone in his large room warmed by all these covers and glowing embers in the stoned fireplace chiseled into the wall right across his bed. His gaze had landed on the very large windows offering him a gorgeous view of a pure and clear night sky sprinkled with a generous amount of stars. He could see them as well back home, but here, as the moonlight reflected onto the ever present snow of the ground, it calmed his troubled mind.

Suddenly, it was as if flowers made of the thinnest layer of ice sprouted from one of the corners of a window. They grew in size and ended up covering most of it, their intricate lacy design elegantly laid on the glass. Then, the feathery lines parted and in the spaces they created, Marik saw words appeared.

_Get well soon, Prince Marik._

He blinked a few times, but the words stayed there, carved into the frost painting now adorning his window. He smiled at them.

“You just watch. I will,” he whispered to them as he closed his eyes, letting sleep claim him once again.

In the morning, the window was completely blank and he wondered if his fever had made him imagine the impressive display of craft he had been offered the night before. Ishizu came and brought him a clear broth cooked from root vegetables and bison meat, something he had never tasted before, and he found it quite delicious. She left him to tend to her duties once again and promised to be back later to check up on him.

He was still too weak and sick to do anything useful, really. However, Marik was not one to lay in bed motionless for full days and he certainly was having none of it even away from home. He grabbed a large fur and walked to the bookshelf stuffed with books in a language he did not speak, but could understand the basics of. Once again, the benefits of having a royal education. He took a few of them in his arms and settled on the plush carpet right in front of the fireplace.

He read for a few hours before he felt sleepy again, but he did not have the energy to move back to bed. He laid down and curled on the carpet, dozing off to the sound of the crackling fire still burning in front of him.

He awoke to soft knocks… but not on the main door of his room, but on the one leading the connecting bedroom he suspected his sister occupied. He crawled towards and knocked back.

“Hello?” he said.

Another voiced sounded from the other side of the door, one that was definitely not his sister’s. “Oh good, you’re awake. How are you feeling?”

Marik blinked at the door. “Not to be blunt, but who’s this?”

There was a chuckle as light as a crystal bell chime. “Oh, forgive me and my bloody manners. I’m Ryou.”

Marik settled next to the door and spoke directly against it. “ _The_ Prince Ryou?”

Another soft laugh. “Well, if you must put a title on it, then yes, as you are, Prince Marik.”

Marik smiled. “Is this your room next to mine?”

He heard a shuffle and suspected the other was now leaning against their shared wall. “Why yes, they though about settling you close to me. It seems they want us to befriend somewhat.”

It was Marik’s turn to laugh at the implications of the queens’ shenanigans. “And conveniently, the only memory my sister has of us getting along is by pulling each other’s hair, it seems.”

There was a gentle groan from the other. “Funny, that this is the only thing mine remembers too.”

Marik felt strange talking to Ryou with a barrier between them. “Did you… want to come in?” he offered.

The other sighed loud enough for him to hear. “As much as I would prefer to, my sister insists on those traditional greetings and since you have yet to be introduced officially to the court, this door shall remain locked between us.”

“Oh,” Marik trailed, somewhat disappointed that they had to carry this conversation like this. “Well, that sucks.”

He could practically hear the smile in the other’s reply. “It bloody hell does.”

Something came back to him abruptly and he decided to follow his guts. He could still picture the delicate frost lacing on his window last night, and if the royals here were anything like his own family, well he would not be surprised if Prince Ryou had a few hidden talents of his own. “Tell me, did you by any chance send me a message last night?”

The voice was suddenly softer. “Oh, you go it? I’m glad you were awake then to see it. I wasn’t sure you would be.”

Marik smiled as he remembered the kind words coming to life on the cold glass. “It was… very crafty,” he said before adding, “and beautiful.”

A minute pause came from his interlocutor. “Thank you. I’ll leave you to your rest, but I will be back tomorrow. Same time?”

The Arabian smiled as he laid his palm flat against the door. “I’d like the company for sure.”

As he took his fur back to bed and settled in for the night, his eyes went straight to the window.

And there in another painted panel of frost was another message waiting for him.

_Good night, Prince Marik._

“Good night too, Prince Ryou,” he whispered.

***

“Tell me about Icelandia,” Marik prompted from his respective side of the door.

A sweet chuckle sounded, muffle by their barrier. “Now if that is not a vague request.”

Marik laughed lightly in response. “Well, I don’t remember much and the most I’ve seen so far is the inside of this room and the courtyard from the windows.”

Ryou moved against the wall. “How about I show you instead then?” he said.

Marik frowned although the other could not see him. “And how would you do that? That door is locked, I did check,” he replied with a smirk.

“Are you sitting in front of the door right now?” Ryou asked.

He glanced at said door. “Yes, why?”

“Move to the left of it and just watch,” the other prince requested.

Marik did as demanded and tightened the soft fur around him. He had grown to like its presence, especially after the nice warm bath he just had. His fever had definitely died down, but his cough was still present. He estimated maybe another day of rest before he would be fully recovered. “Alright, but…” he started, but stopped as he witnessed something very peculiar happen. “…wait a second!”

Beneath the door, the same lacy frost he had watch grow on his window, traced patterns against the golden wooden floor of his own bedroom. Slowly, a map started appearing with details only a painter could represent so well. The dips and curves of the land drew themselves in front of his eyes before taking height and becoming alive, the rivers flowing, the mountain peaking and the trees rustling with an invisible wind.

Prince Ryou had just gifted him his country in the form of the most gorgeously crafted ice sculpture.

“You wanted to see Icelandia, here it is,” the ice prince spoke softly from the other side of the door.

Marik was at a complete loss of word for a moment. “How are you- I mean, the frost on the window is one thing, but this…” he breathed out. “This is a masterpiece!”

Once again, Ryou’s laughed sounded as clear as day through the door. “I’m just getting started, you easily impressed prince!”

The map may have looked alive before, but it was suddenly becoming even more as tiny animals he had never seen before appeared amongst the mountains and clearings in the forests. Minuscule people started walking along the roads, but what truly caught his attention were a couple of individuals dancing on water.

He felt mesmerized by them. “How can people do that?”

There was a pause. “Do what?”

“There, on the lake, they’re… floating.”

There was a hint of affection in Ryou’s laugh. “They’re skating.”

A tan finger grazed at one of the characters that melted instantly before sprinting to life again. “What in Arabia’s name is that?”

Prince Ryou’s soft words sounded close, almost as if he was over his shoulder and whispering them to him. “Here, when it’s even colder, our lakes become covered with a thick layer of ice and people wear these shoes with blades under them, and then they got waltz on the ice.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Prince Marik inquired.

“Not if you know how,” the other prince replied.

Marik continued observing the skaters in sheer disbelief. He smiled as he shared one of his own custom from back home. “In my country, at dawn and twilight, we sometimes escape to the dunes and use waxed wooden boards to slide on them.”

Ryou sounded excited about the share. “That sounds amazing!”

Feeling sleepy yet again, the tanned prince laid his back against the wall and rested his head upon it, one of his hands tracing a heated path on the map, leaving the trail of a delicate fingertip.

Ryou brought them both back to reality. “You should get some rest, I’d like for you to get out of that room one day.”

“Me too,” Marik agreed.

There was another pause, but not an uncomfortable one, just one that spoke volumes about how both princes did not quite want to leave their muted conversation yet. “Would you like to hear a song?” Ryou offered from the other side of the wall. “It’s something our father used to sing to us, it tells the legend of a snow monster that watched over our land.”

“I’d love to,” Marik whispered back.

And as Ryou’s soft voiced lulled him to sleep with stories about a giant furry beast and its mythical ways, he pictured himself tentatively walking on the frozen lake from the beautifully crated map still alive next to him.

***

When he came to, he knew he was not awake at all. He recognized the feeling engulfing him when his own power of dream walking was active.

And the fact he was wearing typical Arabian clothing in a frozen land without shivering was also a dead giveaway that this was not quite a tangible reality.

He was currently standing under a velvet midnight sky pierced with stars, but the land around him was not the one he had seen from the courtyard or the one Ryou had pictured for him last night. He was surrounded by a wasteland of snow as he stood infront of large icy gates already opened for him. He walked towards them and, almost on cue, as soon as he passed them, they closed behind him, trapping him inside what looked to be a immense frozen maze.

He looked left and right, trying to decide which way he should pursue, when a tinkling blue light alerted him of another presence inside the labyrinth. He walked slowly towards it and it did not move, as if waiting for him to reach it. When he was close enough, he could see right there in the middle of that blue floating light what he recognized as a sprite. He had seen sprites before, most of them in dreams like this one, since the little buggers also liked to dream travel like him.

Usually, dream traveling required physical contact and, unless someone had actually made it inside his room, he was completely surprised at his presence in someone else’s mind at the moment.

Nevertheless, when the sprite motioned for him to follow, he did. He jogged right behind it as it flew like a snowy dragonfly, leading him deeper and deeper into the maze, right until they reached what he believed to be the center of it.

The walls opened up on a clearing on frost covered leafless trees, their branches decorated of white and glistening under the moonlit sky, forming an almost perfect circle. The whole ground was covered in powdered snow, only disturbed by Marik’s almost silent steps along it.

Marik felt nervousness for the first time since entering the dream. The sprite’s tiny hands grabbed his index and tugged him closer to the empty center of the circle, a soft tinkling sound accompanying them as they threated towards it.

Marik took a tentative step on what he felt to be ice, his slippers gripping onto the surface just enough for him not to slip. He smiled and chuckled happily as he took another step, now both feet on the ice. As soon as this step was taken, the sprite dived through the ice without breaking it and disappeared into the darkness underneath it.

Suddenly, the Arabian prince felt alone in this frozen emptiness and a pang of sadness hit him… until he felt more than heard a knock right under his feet. Cautiously, he knelt on the ice, wiped the dusted snow covering the translucent surface, and almost fell back from the image that appeared right beneath him.

There, under the ice, was a young boy, probably around 4 years old, a head of short white hair and piercing dark eyes. He was also kneeling on his side of the ice, looking at Marik the same way Marik was looking at him. It did not even feel like there was water under that ice. Suddenly, he smiled tenderly.

Marik noticed his hands were smaller, his body lighter and, a hand to his hair confirmed it, his hair also shorter. He caught sight on his reflection on the ice next to the other boy and he was back at around the same age as him, it seems.

Warmly, he smiled back at the other and snickered. The other stood up on his side of the ice, and Marik mirrored his action. Both started walking around the ice and dancing like wintery ballerinas and the Arabian prince just kept laughing and turning and laughing and turning like his counterpart until he fell down on his butt.

He then laid down on the ice, his eyes again mesmerized by the beauty of the winter night sky above him. He twisted his body around and looked for the other boy, their face now very close to one another. He laid his palm flat against the ice and so did the white haired boy.

The ice instantly melted and fingers met as eyes grew wide in surprise…

And Marik came to again, but this time, back in his Icelandia palace room, his hand nestled into a puddle. A thin stream of water flowed from his hand to right under the door connecting the princes’ rooms, right in the middle on the leftover powdered snow from the frosted map that Prince Ryou had created for him last night.

***

Servants were bustling around his room, opening the windows to freshen up the air in the room as they hushed him outside to another room where he got bathed again and dressed in Arabian violet, but with thicker fabrics, golden embroideries and fur details. His feet were tucked into comfortable boots and his hair was pulled back elegantly.

Ishizu appeared as soon as the room finally stopped spinning from all the preparation. She was dressed in similar fashion, her skin glowing against the white fur details of her own outfit. She made sure he was well rested and energetic enough to face the royals of Icelandia for dinner, and he assured her he was.

But he was also nervous as hell. From what he could tell, he had entered Prince Ryou’s dream last night and even caught a glimpse of the prince, although his features had been blurred by the ice between them. What if the prince felt vexed by this unwanted invasion of his privacy? What if after that he thought less of him and did not really wish to speak with him again? Even with a door or a wall between them, he had actually grown quite found of this budding friendship between them over the last few days.

Ishizu squeezed his hand on their way to the banquet hall, surely sensing his unrest. She whispered words of encouragement as they passed the heavy wooden doors. He was then officially presented to the Icelandian court, proudly wearing his family heirloom, indicating him as the official wielder of the Stellar Bridge key and new diplomatic liaison between the two kingdoms.

He never really had much a say in it, but he knew his sister trusted in his ability to occupy such a position much more then he believed it himself. No one ushered in the assistance and everyone offered a small bow in respect, bringing a slight flush of embarrassment to his cheeks.

And then his eyes met him.

The crown prince of Icelandia.

Standing proudly next to his sister, Queen Kisara.

Waving shyly up to him.

And the blush deepened.

He wore his country’s traditional royal blue with silver embroidered and grey fur, his hair also pulled up neatly like Marik’s. Around his neck was a similar talisman to that around his own neck, but the jewel embedded inside was of a rich amber colour.

Marik did not remember the taste of the food, the sound of the music nor most of the conversation at the table that happened that night. But he remembered the way those warm chocolate brown eyes had met his and twinkled in the dim lighting, and how the room got warmer instantly just from that.

He had been led back to his room by the end of the evening, and funnily enough, he had done so side-by-side with the Icelandian prince who was also going to his room. Both of them had not said a word to each other specifically through the meal and now, it was as if both dared not speak in front of their guards.

Marik waved him goodnight as he entered his room, and Ryou replied accordingly. As soon as his door was closed, he let go of the breath he had been holding and chewed on his lip. Ryou was definitely uncomfortable about what had happened last night; that was the only plausible reason for this sudden distance between them when they now had no barriers to hide behind.

There was a knock, but not from the door behind him.

“Can I come in?” was whispered against the door that separated his and Ryou’s bedroom.

Marik hurried towards it, and with a hint of joy, found it unlocked and opened it immediately.

Ryou quickly tossed him a woolen coat with a large hood rimmed with fur as he draped one on his shoulders also. He motioned for him to put it on and then grabbed his hand and headed for his door. “Come quickly before the guards check up on us and find us gone.”

Marik just complied willingly, the heat from their joint hand reaching all the way up to his face. “Where are we going?” he asked as he was lead downstairs and towards the tall doors of the courtyard.

Ryou turned around and beamed at him. “Skating.”

They entered the courtyard where fluffy snowflakes were falling from the sky and delicately covering the place with an even softer feel. Ryou let go of Marik’s hand and took a couple of steps away from him. He bent down next to the immense fountain covering most of the ground and grazed the surface of the thinly frozen water with a finger. Thicker ice started accumulating on it until he deemed it appropriate, its shiny surface now safe and sturdy enough.

Marik just stared at him in disbelief and awe. “But I don’t know how…” he said.

Ryou smirked at him, a hand on his hip. “That did not stop you last night, did it?”

“That was different!” the other replied before realising the implication of Ryou’s comment. He suddenly felt very shy again about that accidental dream walk he had taken into the other’s thoughts. “Did you… mind? I didn’t mean to, it just happened and I-“

Ryou stopped him with a finger on his lips now that he was close enough to do so. “I think you have a very unique and awesome gift. And I also think toddler you looked adorable,” he finished with a cute wink.

The Arabian prince brushed the hand away from his face. “Stop joking around! Aren’t be supposed to act all fancy now that we’ve officially been named ambassadors?”

Ryou laughed lightly, the sound of it making butterflies flutter in his stomach. “Says the prince who told me he escaped his own palace as often as he could to cause mayhem and chaos?”

Marik raised a playful eyebrow at the accusation. “I said I escaped to have some fun, but yeah. Point taken.” He nudged the other on the shoulder. “Looks as us, two responsible diplomats already disregarding proper manners. What a pair we make!”

Ryou nudged him back before hooping his arm around his and pulling him closer to the now very frozen fountain surface. “Indeed we do. Besides, those rules were already broken from the moment I spoke to you when I was supposed to wait.”

Marik snickered. “Yeah, I’ve never been that good at being patient too.”

He stopped right on the edge as Ryou climbed onto the ice. The other easily found his footing, balancing gracefully. He turned around and eyed the nervous prince still hesitant to step along with him.

He held out one of his hands towards him. “Trust me?” he prompted sweetly.

Marik took the offered hand and tentatively put one foot after the other on the slippery ground. “Just-”

Right then, he slipped but was caught by a steady arm around his waist and pulled flushed against the Icelandian prince, his one available arm coming to rest around his shoulder for support. Their faces were so close that their breath mingled, and then, in the tenderest gesture he had ever been the recipient of, Ryou laid his forehead against his, his warm eyes boring into his.

“I promise I won’t let go,” he whispered.

And right there, with the ice sturdy underneath their feet and their hearts as warm as glowing embers, the rest of the world around them melted.

**Author's Note:**

> Please go read all the other offerings from this collection <3
> 
> My Tumblr: [xauroraxborealisx](https://xauroraxborealisx.tumblr.com/)


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